Food for Thought
by Lewen
Summary: Post Milagro. Anne Wingard. Follows 'A Halloween Scare'


  
  
Food for Thought  
by Stonewar  
  
  
-Rating: PG  
-Category: V Post-ep  
-Keywords: Mulder/Other friendship  
-Disclaimer: X-Files characters belong to FOX and 1013. .  
-Spoilers: Milagro, eludes to The Unnatural  
-Summary: During the aftermath a friend offers a little food for thought.  
  
Authors notes: The is Part of my ANNE series. found at  
  
She lay on his couch sleeping peacefully for the moment. He  
watched her chest rise and fall as she breathed. He imagined  
he could see her heart beating against the section of chest  
exposed by the gaping neckline of her borrowed shirt.  
  
It was stifling in the apartment. He wanted to run his frustrations  
away, but he did not dare take his eyes off her for fear she  
would. . . Need him? Leave? Fade away?  
  
He paced the length of his apartment from the front room to the  
window but that didn't satisfy him since he tried to avoid the spot  
on the floor where she had lain in a pool of her own blood. Finally  
he threw his front door open to pace the hallway outside. Every  
time he walked by his door he would glance in to make sure she  
was still sleeping. As he continued his path he would avoid the  
spot on the floor of where she had lain another time not so long ago.  
  
The door to the stairwell at the end of the hall opened and a head  
peaked out whispering, "All clear?  
  
"All clear," Mulder whispered in return. So she stepped into the hall.  
Anne looked different now. Her cheeks were fuller and there was a  
little bruising under her eyes from not getting enough sleep. The most  
drastic change was that she had hacked off her long wooly brown hair  
into a simple jaw-length pageboy. she was also sporting a new accessory  
these days, and it was snuggled up against her shoulder snoring softly.  
  
The baby! "Oh God. Anne, I'm sorry about the commotion. How is she?" he asked,   
reaching to peel back the blanket for glimpse of the infant's peaceful face.  
  
"She's fine, Mulder. The gunshots woke her, of course, but I got her  
back to sleep. " she smiled tiredly.  
  
He was fidgeting with a blanket, body language conveying he was  
itching to hold her. So Anne complied laying her daughter in his  
arms, then took the opportunity to roll her shoulders while he  
whispered ,"Sorry to wake you, little one."  
  
"I even put it in her baby book 'Christie heard her first shot fired  
today' and it won't be the last time, Mulder. She's growing up in an urban  
area during 21st century." she informed him with a rueful smile  
caressing the black downy hair on her child's head. "How's Dana?  
I'm probably not the only called 911 when I heard the screams."  
  
Mulder a let out a heavy breath and pulled Christie a little closer.  
Only a week old and already giving so much comfort. "Badly shaken.  
She had a good cry, now she's sleeping."  
  
Anne raised her eyebrows at the mention of Dana Scully breaking  
down in tears but only remarked, "Extreme emotions are exhausting....The  
next door neighbor, huh?" she asked eyeing the ajar door down that hall.  
  
"Yep."  
  
"So, who are you moving into this apartment?" She asked with a smirk.  
  
Mulder chuckled softly at her question. Yes, this situation was remarkably  
simular to what happened over a year ago when he discovered he was being  
survielled from above and Anne graciously agreed to move into the vacated  
apartment upstairs.  
  
"Scully?" He suggested.  
  
"Nah!" they disagreed together.  
  
She watched her friend sway with the baby in his arms and inhale  
her sweet scent. He sighed and returned Christie to her mother.  
"Hmm ... when she wakes up maybe I should send her upstairs.  
Christina is better than a sedative. Scully probably could use a  
hit of this too. " He suggested tracing a finger along the baby's velvety  
cheek and smiled slightly.  
  
"Look at what it did for you. " she added which made him smiled bigger and she gave a motherly caress to his cheek as she moved  
past him to glance into his apartment at the sleeping Scully on the  
couch. He had never pictured Anne as a mother before. It was a  
difficult concept to wrap his mind around all during her pregnacy.  
Now she exudes a Maternal aura or something. It was simply  
amazing. She cleared her throat to interrupt his musings."I've  
been watching a lot of educational TV during my late-night feedings  
and you can take my observations as result of postpartum hormones.  
But I want to pass on a little food for thought. "  
  
"Go ahead, there's no need for you to qualify your statements like that I  
always listen to you," He protested.  
  
"Ok here goes ... I know the word codependant has been tossed  
your way a couple times. " he nodded in response. "Here's  
something else, trauma bonds."  
  
"I don't think get you," Mulder prompted.  
  
"I know I get a lot of your stories secondhand but I get the  
impression you two seem to only get close in times of crisis.  
You feel closest or let yourselves open to each solely in  
those instances. What you have... I envy that but once this, "  
she gestures vaguely around her, "Ends. Memories of crisis is  
all that you'll have. I know I'm not the psychologists here but I  
think the relationship will be run into trouble if you don't base it  
on something good and happy too, not just crisis after crisis. "  
she sighed. " Like I said chalk it up to the hormones. I need  
to go put this one down and catch a nap myself." She turned  
to go back to her apartment upstairs.  
  
"Anne," He called to her, and she turned to acknowledge  
him. "I'll think about."  
  
She smiled in response. "Bring her upstairs when she wakes up.  
I think you may be on to something with this Baby sedative."She  
suggested and continued on her way home.  
  
Mulder turned to his apartment again lingering in the doorway.  
"She's right, Scully," He whispered. "We need some more positive  
memories to look back on. We need to play."  
  
  
end  
  



End file.
